


we'll fly (when we have wings)

by sarahshelena



Series: when we have wings {an OB AU} [1]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Additional Warnings Apply, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Confinement, F/F, F/M, Flying, Past Child Abuse, Recreational Drug Use, Self-Mutilation, Wing Worship, Wings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-05
Updated: 2015-06-05
Packaged: 2018-04-03 00:56:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4080403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahshelena/pseuds/sarahshelena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wing!verse. Adheres to canon as strictly as possible. Starts with Sarah, sometimes backstory included. </p><p>so in a very unconnected way I love Orphan Black and also love a book called When We Have Wings by Claire Corbett. I've wanted to write fanfiction for it for a while but it's really not popular, so I thought I'd do a wing!verse for OB.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sarah (& Beth)

**Author's Note:**

> primaries, pinions and flight feathers are all the same thing, "the flight feathers are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired feathers on the wings or tail of a bird. The primary function of the flight feathers is to aid in the generation of both thrust and lift, thereby enabling flight."
> 
> Sarah's wings are based upon the common raven shown here: http://m4.i.pbase.com/g3/09/427509/2/94355524.Tpykgz39.jpg 
> 
> and here: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/63/2b/8d/632b8d5658c9007dd803cbdbda296665.jpg
> 
> Beth's wings (based on the wings of a Great-tailed grackle, look like this: http://www.jrcompton.com/photos/The_Birds/J/April-13/Great-taile_Grackle_drying_its_wings-012_4728.jpg
> 
> http://www.jrcompton.com/photos/The_Birds/J/June-08/grack-feathers-awry_J227958.jpg

Sarah's wings were black. Completely black, like a raven's wings, with just a slight sheen over them that showed purple and even green under light.

Just as bruises and cuts went unchecked on her face, broken feathers went unnoticed, contributing to her punk image. Sarah would often throw a long leather coat on over her wings to hide their ruffled and uncared-for appearance until she could clean up, preen and tape up her broken pinions.

Sarah could fly longer than most people could, having spent most her life running she took the time to build up her flight muscles and discipline her body. Wiry and small, she could prepare to take off at a few moments notice, even just flap her wings while sprinting to speed up.

Beth's wings were a deep, dark blue, which could be mistaken for black in poorly-lit interiors, and so Sarah's black wings, enfolding Paul in midnight went largely unnoticed by him.

Sarah watched the videos of Beth, first thinking that her wings were black too - until Beth turned and they became the almost-black of a cloud just passing over the moon, a brilliant sheen of blue...

“Fe, I have an idea.”


	2. Cosima

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cosima's wings are based upon the wings of the red and green macaw. 
> 
> http://cache2.asset-cache.net/gc/462809583-scarlet-macaw-spreads-its-wings-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=UHNR4gcxSrbkDKk2tnKU3BHlCklV4WbZhqam%2Ff15m%2Bo0eCpqe%2FIE5SfIGkvgd553 
> 
> http://www.allaboutcreation.com.au/uploads/5/9/9/9/5999305/7954877_orig.jpg

Cosima's wings looked like they belonged to a bird of the rainforest or jungle - the shoulders of her wings a brilliant scarlet, blending into a thick line of forest-green and then a crystal-clear sea blue, all the way down to the tips of her primaries.

Even without her glasses and dreads, stood next to Alison or Sarah, she didn't just look like a completely different person, she looked like a completely different species. 

It was a rule in the lab to wear gloves and safety goggles (or if you wore glasses, you were required to keep them on), likewise you had to cover and protect your wings at all times.

Cosima, like everyone else, would just throw her lab coat over them, so only the tips of her sea-blue primaries, almost brushing the floor, could be seen.

She didn't fly often, she was stoned a lot so she didn't want to die plunging to the ground. But whenever she did, pure flight was better than weed, almost better than sex. Her flight muscles weren't powerful enough for long flights, she didn't have enough time to exercise them, but she took time out when she could, sometimes after work, sometimes in the morning, but her favourite time to fly was at night.

She'd even flown naked a few times, laughing at the star-filled sky.


	3. Helena

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning: self mutilation, child abuse (not sexual).

Helena's wings were the most shocking - not for their plumage but for the fact that she had none - only hideous raised bloody lumps on her shoulder blades that showed she did once have wings. Fledging children's wings, small and frail, that Tomas had clipped off himself to the sound of her screams until he had groomed and twisted her enough that she would mutilate herself without question or request. As soon as she felt the itch that told her they were trying to grow back, she'd take a rasp to the lumps of scar tissue and bone and she felt the torture as bliss, as redemption.

In the hospital, the doctors were horrified at the mutilation she had undergone, having no explanation for such injuries, what person would do this to another? They had to surgically open up the lumps on her back to drain fluid and reduce the risk of further infections, and also to remove some of the scar tissue that was too thick to allow proper regrowth and reassembled the flesh as best they could so she would not be too badly disfigured. Wings were a source of pride and beauty, they distinguished you from another in that they showed you were unique, one. With no wings you might as well have no name.

They were allowed to grow at the Johannson ranch, Gracie and Henrik even walked in on Tomas about to take a knife to the newly fledging wings.

When Sarah saw Helena again, she looked more like an avenging angel than she ever had before. Her wings were white, snow-white and massive, and when she embraced a sobbing Sarah, these swan's wings, these angel's wings did too, enshrouding their bloodstained forms, impossibly soft.

Helena had never flown, not once in her life. Too young at the convent for her tiny wings to lift her off the ground, and when she tried, the nuns would tell her such a god-given pleasure was not for a sinful child such as her. And when Tomas took her away, he took away her identity, he took away her chance to fly.

So she never believed the stories that she was one of God's little angels. She was a spiteful child, steeped in sin before she first took breath. She had not the right to fly.

Embracing her sestra in the darkened apartment building overlooking Rachel's apartment, where before there had only been fear and revulsion, Sarah had to fight the feeling of safety that welled up inside her as the dust-motes-in-sunlight scent of Helena's wings enfolded her, fragrant and warm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helena's wings are based upon the wings of the mute swan, I know we all know it, but the pictures are breathtaking please check them out. 
> 
> https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/101/300831590_47ba4c6945_b.jpg
> 
> http://ibc.lynxeds.com/files/pictures/Cygnus_olor_1_0.jpg


	4. Rachel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rachel's wings are based on the Canadian Goose shown in the following photos
> 
> http://www.stone-speak.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/DSC_5672.jpg
> 
> http://www.glennalexon.com/1000/goose%20wings.jpg
> 
> This chapter is for my friend villettes on AO3 (printofminds.tumblr.com)

Rachel's wings were a light creamy brown, darkening to a rich grey-chocolate, the undersides a dark slate grey blending into black, and she almost never covered them up. You could walk into her office and she'd be preening them with a special comb, and fold them neatly behind her as she spoke to you, ever aware of them brushing against her skin. When she leant against her desk she'd drape them over her shoulders almost casually, folding them as neatly as she crossed her legs.

She'd keep them folded tightly against her body, never allowing them to brush against another person. Which was why she'd only ever have sex with the other person in a chair, so she could not only dominate them, but ensure not a single feather brushed against them.

Whenever she was a child and the doctors examined her and whenever Leekie would hug her, to her discomfort and contempt, bearing it in stony-faced silence, afterwards, every feather they touched or she thought they might have touched, she'd pluck them out, gritting her teeth and yanking on the large flight feathers, and simply pinching out the downy feathers on the shoulders of her wings, the smallest feathers taking a few days to a week to grow back, the largest up to a month. She never slept with a stuffed toy or a doll, instead running her fingers over her wings, again and again until she fell asleep.

Her vanity grew every year since she was a child and taken into the care of Dyad. She could not be more aware and proud of the beauty of her wings.

She was not permitted to fly as a child, spending all her time indoors. And in the glass and chrome high-rise world she lived in now, she hadn't the time nor the patience to train her body to fly, and she would never do so outside where anyone could see her. They existed purely as an aesthetic ornament to her body, nothing more.


	5. Delphine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Delphine's wings are based on a ring-necked dove shown here: 
> 
> https://loisaidanest.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/ringneckdoveruki1.jpg
> 
> Sorry this chapter is so short but we still know next to nothing about Delphine and I don't have it in me to create a backstory when one may well be provided by the show and then mine will be rendered irrelevant - hope you like it

Delphine's wings were a soft cream colour, almost golden in direct sunlight, warm and silken against Cosima's cheek. She was shy with them, and flattered and aroused whenever Cosima would run her hands over them in bed, and as a protective gesture she would encircle the two of them in a soft ring of golden light. The first time she kissed Cosima her golden pinions traced her cheek and stroked under her chin.

She cried when Cosima first touched her wings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that's it for now! I'm working on a Cosima/Delphine smut chapter that'll tie in to this AU but it's not finished yet. 
> 
> I'll update as soon as I can :)

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment if you'd like to read more about a character and if I haven't covered them yet, let me know what kind of wings you think they'd have, colour, pattern etc, even what bird the wings would be based on if you like. I hope you enjoyed it


End file.
